God has been changing our hearts so much through this whole adoption process. He has really changed my heart when it comes to money. I used to be all about control. I had to make sure we had enough money in our bank account to keep us "safe" in any situation that might come about. I never wanted to spend money on ANYTHING because I wanted a ridiculously huge buffer "just in case."
Well we have put EVERYTHING we have into this adoption and you know what....God has never blessed us more financially. I finally realized that it is not my money! Even if I have a million dollars sitting in my savings account, God can take it away whenever he wants. It is His money and He wants us to be good stewards of it. Being a good Stewart does not just mean being frugal. It mean sharing the money with the least of these.
Before we began this adoption process, my excuse for not sponsoring a child in another country was that too many of the organizations that we would donate through are corrupt. Now this is a true statement and there are many that are corrupt and in some cases the money does not get used for what it was intended for. But that was still just an excuse because after I did a little research I found plenty of organizations that will help us sponsor people that I trust completely.
Then we started adopting and I knew that I wanted to help others but I figured that we need to spend our money on our children. Otherwise there may not be enough! Talk about thinking horizontally instead of vertically! God kept tugging at my heart. My husband kept telling me over and over again that even if we spent our money on something foolish, God will not leave our children as orphans. He would also tell me that God would never punish us for being too generous.
Our church partners with a small church on a small island in Haiti. The pastor and his wife have started an organization that built a school and now teaches the children in the village. In Haiti, only the wealthy can go to school and have a chance to get out of poverty. Not only are these children taught, they are fed. For some, this is the only meal they get all day. A few months ago, we started sponsoring a young man in Haiti. He is 16 years old and we love him to pieces We have one small picture of him and can get updates when we want but he has blessed our lives and we LOVE supporting him.
I follow a family who recently moved to Ethiopia to be missionaries. They are a young couple and Gavin and I really relate to them and love being able to see their hearts for the Lord. There names are Ian and Brittany Bentley. They recently posted a picture of a beautiful pregnant women and all it said was that she came from rough times and is having a baby. What a brave person I thought. I do not know what she came from but I have studied Ethiopia and I can only imagine that she is scared and struggling. This sparked a fire in my heart. So I contacted Brittany to ask about sponsoring a child. I though it would be really special to sponsor someone who we could meet when we travel to Ethiopia. Well she told me about the women I saw in the picture. We love all three of them already and can't wait to be a part of their lives in this small way.
There is ALWAYS enough money to help others. If you want more info about either of these organizations, you can email me. You can also check out www.IMofH.org if you are interested in sponsoring a child from Haiti. If you are interested in sponsoring someone from Ethiopia, visit www.steadfastlove.org. Both of these organization are run by God fearing families.
UPDATE: Still nothing:) Chase.com is not working right now so I can not check our bank account to see if our dossier has sent. It has actually been a welcomed relief...it was starting to make me crazy. I gave in and e-mailed our coordinator on Wednesday instead of Thursday. She was not gotten back to me yet but I plan on calling tomorrow if I do not hear from her tonight. Keep praying that everything is going smoothly with our dossier. It is taking longer than we thought to get to Ethiopia and we can not get a hold of anyone to confirm that everything is fine.
All of your posts are encouraging to read and this one especially....what you said about money is SO true, it all comes from God and we are to be good stewards of the resources He entrusts us with. We are to be conduits, not cisterns! (From Pastor Jon's sermon awhile back) We sponsor several children and the missionary family in Haiti as well as sponsoring a girl in India through World Vision (which is another of the excellent organizations ... www.worldvision.org) and it is a true blessing. For what for many living in the US is a meal at a restaurant...$20 to $35...one can provide education, food, clothing, medical care and other needs for a child and family living in poverty. The poverty in other countries is so much worse than what we have here...and World Vision does serve children in the US as well. OK...I've gone on long enough....and I'm not saying anything Rachel and Gavin don't already know! :) Continuing to pray for you guys .... esp for patience in this waiting time...peace...successful processing of all the papers! Love you all :)
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel, I'm so excited to read your posts. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself (and Gavin) in your posts and what is going in in your hearts and lives with the adoption.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in High School I sponsored a Child thru World Vision in India. It was so incredible to see what just 15.00 a month could do, feeding and clothing a child. That was back in the late 1970's and 80's. :-) God really changed my heart back then. What a blessing it was to give to that little boy. Back then I thought I was going to marry a missionary and go to India or Africa or some foriegn country for sure!! :-)
I am so thankful to the Lord for how he is working in your lives.
I am encouraged now to go thru the process with Macy and Landon so they can experience what I experienced when i was young. Macy does her missions missions at church. One of Macy's was did a huge Missions drive for a Missionary who saves baby girls killed at birth in China. Her heart was so touched by those baby girls.
I'll let her read your post. And we can get started with the process! Thank you for sharing what you did! Another child will be saved from your compassionate heart and obeidance to God!